The StarSpangled Man With a Pan
by Walking Saint
Summary: Steve had planned this. He had put his mind and soul into it and he just really, really wanted it to work, but so far, his plan was going not exactly like he expected it to go ... "Why Tony needs all this?" he whined as he tried to find a recipe of chocolate cupcake and butter cream frosting that he, somehow, lost. One-Shot. Un-Beta'ed.


_I was given the prompt "baking" and, because the person who suggested it is a huge Steve x Tony shipper, I thought I could try writing something for this pairing._

_Also, English isn't my first language and this fic is Un-Beta'ed so pardon me if there are way too many mistakes._

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**The Star-Spangled Man With a Pan  
**

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_Sir, I believe it would be wiser if you just asked Mrs. Louise to-_

"JARVIS, please don't. I want to do this."

It took him some getting used to, but by now, Steve Rogers was almost getting used to talking to a voice that had no face whatsoever. Almost. It's been about three weeks that he had moved into Stark Tower now and, even though he sometimes felt like an idiot for talking Tony's home computing system, the sophisticated AI was growing on him each and every day. Well, today started out kind of different...

Steve had planned this. He had put his mind and soul into it and he just really, really wanted it to work, but so far, his plan was going not exactly like he expected it to go...

_As you wish, sir..._

"Yeah, yeah," Steve muttered as he used his elbow to tap on the touch screen of the iPad that he had got from Tony for whatever reason the latter could think of...

Steve and Tony had been going out for two weeks (give or take), and even though Steve was no expert when it comes to things like dating and such, he wanted to do something for Tony so, that's how he ended up, at five ten in the morning, in the kitchen, struggling with what seemed to be the most modern appliances available.

"Why Tony needs all this?" he whined as he tried to find a recipe of chocolate cupcake and butter cream frosting that he, somehow, lost. "And why can't he work with simple things, like a notebook and a pen?!"

_In Mr. Stark's defense, if he was fond of simple things, I would not exist so, forgive me if I don't commiserate... Although, allow me to assist you._

Steve washed his hands and quickly dried them on the dish towel and grabbed the tablet once again.

A small smile appeared on Steve's face when he looked down at the screen and the recipe was once again there. He looked up, at nothing in particular. "Thanks JARVIS."

_You're welcome, sir._

Steve glanced at the recipe then at the set of ingredients he had already put on the island in order to make things easier. So, placing the tablet back on the counter, careful enough not to touch anything and lose the recipe again, Steve started with all liquid ingredients plus the eggs.

A smirk played with the corner of Steve's lips as he thought what Tony would say if he saw him right now. Or Fury. Or anyone else from the Avengers Initiative for that matter... Captain America ditched his spandex suit and put on an apron instead. Yeah, it'd be oh so fun and he would never hear the end of it.

But the Avengers were only God knows where. Thor was most likely to in Asgard, Natasha and Clint should be working at some mission for S.H.I.E.L.D., Doctor Banner probably was at some stranded location, using his skills to help other people... There was only Tony left, and he was currently in his bedroom, on the floor above Steve, sleeping.

For a brief moment, Steve wished to be there with him. Holding onto Steve as the other man snuggled up to him. Not in a million years Steve would've imagined that Tony Stark was a cuddler.

Once again, Steve found himself smiling foolishly at the thought of Tony. Whenever he went over everything that happened between the two of them, he ended up smiling like an idiot because it was actually funny how they ended up being a couple. I mean, they bickered like two old ladies all the time, yet Steve learned that that was their way of showing affection... Kind of twisted, sure, but it worked for them.

Then Steve was pulled from his reverie when he noticed he had quite a situation to deal with.

"Hm... JARVIS, by any chance, you know how this oven from hell works?" Steve asked as he stared blankly at the so-called oven.

The stainless steel appliance looked nothing like an oven to begin with. At least not to Steve. In all honesty, the "oven" resembled more a TV rather than a cooking machine. Full of buttons, and so... fancy. Not to mention there were two of them.

_I highly doubt this oven was made in hell, sir, but sure. I can turn it on for you, though I would advice you on keeping an eye on the blender._

"Oh, right."

Steve had left all liquid ingredients mixing in the blender and he needed to turn the attention back to it.

He turned it off and then it was his turn to struggle with the mixer. Why was it that those things looked like something that came from the future? Oh, right. Because they did.

Steve then added the dry ingredients (flour and baker's yearn) on the bowl that would go on the mixer and took of the jug from the blender.

In all honesty, Steve would have preferred doing the mixing with his hands and a wooden spoon, although he'd seen Mrs. Louise -Stark's housekeeper- using all this modern utensils and he decided, since he was now living in the 21st century, might as well try to catch up with everything. Though, as soon as he turned the mixer on, he regretted his decision of doing the whole "catching up" thing today.

Even though he had poured some of the brown liquid mix into the bowl, as he turned it on, some of the flour flew out of it, sprinkling white all over the red and yellow apron.

"Oh, _come on!_" Steve let out a cry as he shut the mixer off.

_Sir, perhaps if you requested Mrs-_

"JARVIS."

_Okay..._

With an annoyed huff, Steve grabbed a spoon and, pouring more of the liquid from the jug into the bowl, gave it all a gentle stir, mixing it all together before turning the mixer on again.

This time, nothing flew out the bowl so Steve opened a small smile; that was a success, minor, but still.

He finished pouring the liquid into the mixer and left it there for a while as he moved onto the next phase and started putting cupcake liners onto the cupcake pan...

It wasn't like Steve had never baked in his life; he did. One or two times, but he did. Though he never really tried baking cupcakes. But he saw this peculiar type of cake one day when he was wandering aimlessly through the streets of New York (shortly before Nick Fury showed up with the whole Avengers thing) and he found it interesting and the way it was so carefully decorated, made Steve think of his artistic side. They were two things slightly different -arts and bakery- but Steve figured he could mix those two things together. For Tony.

So, he did the whole thing with great concentration because he did not want to screw everything. Steve put the dough into the red and yellow liners and then, he put the pan into the oven.

"JARVIS, can you adjust the temperature?"

_Absolutely, sir._

"Okay, keep it around 180 and 210 degrees Celsius and it would be great."

_Already done, sir._

"Fantastic. Thanks."

_You're welcome._

Steve then proceeded to making the frosting. He even started humming the melody of an old song that he had stuck in his head, the Star-Spangled Man. It made him think about his past and all the people that weren't alive anymore, like Bucky and Peggy... But, instead of feeling sad, he felt something different. He felt what he could only describe as content.

There was a time when looking back to his past would make old wound bleed and Steve would feel like he was being embraced by the coldness once again. Although right now, he didn't feel that way. He looked back and thought of his old friends and his mind was suddenly filled with thoughts, and they always revolved around the only certain he had: that his friends lived their lives to the fullest. He knew none of them gave up after he was gone. He knew they continued to live, doing their best, and he knew, if they could see him right now, they all would be proud of him and how he seemed to have moved on and was indeed trying to live in this new era.

Steve hummed and cooked and, before he even noticed, he had his cupcakes done.

Taking a step back, Steve admired his work. His chocolate cupcakes were perfect, even the little stars he made out of modeling chocolate and painted with edible gold and red ink were looking great. He was usually modest, but he smiled with great pride as he examined his work.

"Perfect," he muttered to himself as a smile tugged at his lips.

Steve then checked the time. It was a quarter after six in the morning. He focused his hearing; waiting to catch any signs that would tell him that Tony had awakened but the house was dead silent.

Looking around, Steve thought that, if Tony didn't wake up with the blender and the mixer, then he still had some time to improve the surprise.

Strolling around the rather huge kitchen, Steve gathered ingredients for him to make some pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs. The idea of breakfast in bed sounded just too good for him not to act on it.

So he did. He mixed the ingredients to make pancakes, heated a pan for the bacon, and cracked the eggs and whisked them before pouring them into a pan. Steve was a great multitasker and, in less than twenty minutes, he had everything done.

The only thing left was the coffee. Steve was postponing the moment to make coffee because that would involve another one of Tony's electric and futuristic machines and Steve was not looking forward to that. Not really.

After a couple of seconds thinking about the possibilities, Steve ended up deciding to do it the old way. Boil water, he wouldn't need to grind coffee since there was some in a pot that Mrs. Louise bought just yesterday, then he'd just have to find a coffee filter and _ta-da_! Coffee they'd have.

That was it. Steve did everything and put water to boil, but just as he was searching for said item, he heard someone clearing its throat behind him, next to the door.

"I must admit, although I didn't like waking up to an empty bed, I'm enjoying this quite a lot..."

Steve let out an annoyed sigh as Tony Stark made his way into his over the top kitchen.

"Tony..."

"Yes, honey?"

"What are you doing here?"

Tony hopped on one of the bar stools, right across from where Steve was. "Well, y'know... This is my place so..."

"I didn't mean that," Steve said with a roll of his eyes.

"Well, then, what did you mean?" Tony asked nonchalantly as his eyes scanned the kitchen. "Oh, and just… don't forget to watch the water or you'll burn it, Martha Stewart. Why are you even boiling water for?"

"Coffee," Steve retorted annoyed as he walked over to the stove and checked the water.

"Well, then why don't you just use the coffeemaker instead?"

"Because-"

But before Tony could explain why he wasn't using the coffeemaker, Tony spotted an empty bowl and grabbed it. There was something in the bottom; he sniffed it before running a finger through the bottom and brought it to his lips, tasting whatever it was. "Oh, butter cream. What are you up to, Martha Stewart?"

Steve instantly turned in his heels, glaring at Tony, who was still busy with the bowl. "Would you just go away? You're ruining everything!"

Tony looked at Steve innocently, his right index finger still in his mouth. "What _everything_?"

"Everything is everything! Why are you even awake? It's seven in the morning."

"Sounds like a reasonable time to be awake…"

"It's SUNDAY! You always sleep late on Sundays," Steve explained, but Tony didn't seem to be listening to him anymore. He was looking anywhere but him, and when he looked at Steve again, he fixed his eyes on the apron he was using and this amused expression was suddenly plastered on his face and Steve just knew his surprised had just being spoiled.

"Were you fixing me breakfast?"

Steve threw his head back, rolled his eyes and walked away from Tony, shaking his head.

"Is that a no?" Tony asked as he hopped off the bar stool and followed Steve through the large kitchen. "I don't think it's a no… Is it?"

"No," Steve muttered under his breath.

"Wait, is that a no in no you were not fixing me breakfast, or no you were fixing me breakfast and I was wrong in assuming that your headshake was a negativity to my first assumption?"

Steve once again rolled his eyes. Tony could be really annoying sometimes…

The blonde man reached the fridge and addressing nothing but a blank glance at Tony, he disappeared behind the door.

Tony frowned, but the moment he was to peek what Steve was doing, the door of the fridge closed and, standing before him, was Steve Rogers holding a rectangular tray with eight decorated cupcakes.

Tony's eyes shifted from the cupcakes to Tony's face, then back to the cupcakes.

"Huh… Today is not my birthday," he said dubiously while examining the sweets. They were decorated with Iron Man's color, though there was this star on top and that was totally Captain America's.

"I know that," Steve said blankly.

Tony stared at Steve and the latter seemed to be growing impatient by the second. The annoyed look in Steve's face was actually very cute and Tony couldn't help but smile. "Then…"

"Then, since you already ruined my surprise, go ahead."

Tony reached for one of Steve's fancy cupcakes. "You made this for me?"

"No, I made it for JARVIS," Steve replied as he walked around Tony and placed the tray on the island, where Tony was sitting moments ago. "What do you think?"

Tony grinned and took a bite. Then, as he looked back at Steve, he noticed the man had shifted from annoyed to expectant. Tony's grin grew bigger.

"So?"

"So what?"

"How is it?"

Tony mustered this pensive look as he took a second bite of the cupcake. He had to admit. Steve had put quite an effort into making it. They all looked perfectly decorated. If it wasn't for the mess he'd left in his kitchen, Tony would've imagined Steve had bought them.

"Martha Stewart has nothing on you, babe."

Steve frowned, "who's Martha Stewart anyway?"

"From this day on, no one," Tony said as he placed his half-eaten cupcake on the countertop, walked around the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Steve's waist, pulling him closer. "She's definitely no one," he added before placing a soft kiss on Steve's lips. Soft only because Steve placed his hands on Tony's chest and pushed him.

"I need to check the water," he said, looking over his shoulder.

"JARVIS, turn everything off," Tony ordered, shortly before taking a hold of Steve's wrist and the tray of cupcakes. "This whole enterprise of yours gave me a very good idea," he said suggestively.

"What idea?" Steve asked puzzled. "I was just cooking..."

"Come and I'll teach you some role playing," Tony said as he dragged him further into his place, heading towards the bedroom.


End file.
